Saturday, December 12, 2015

Iraq snapshot

Saturday, December 12, 2015. Chaos and violence continue, the US government continues bombing Iraq, Turkish troops continue to occupy Mosul, Shi'ites protest the occupation, the House Veterans Affairs Committee pretends to give a damn about veterans and American tax payers, and much more.

We'll start with a Congressional exchange. We've often noted Dr. Phil Roe, a member of the House of Representatives, who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. There are times when I disagree with him (he too often sees private enterprise as the solution to all problems and ills) but I don't know that I've ever found him truly disappointing. Until this exchange with Deputy Secretary of the VA Sloan Gibson.

US House Rep Phil Roe: [A]nd you are correct, I did take a little bit of offense to some of what you said. Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson: Yes, sir.US House Rep Phil Roe: And I can assure you if some of these people had been working in your shop when you were in the private sector -- or my shop when I was in the private sector -- that they would have been fired. And you can't have 320,000 employees and everybody is doing a great job. It's just too big of an organization. And I understand that and you understand that.Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson: Yes, sir. US House Rep Phil Roe: I think that you'll probably find that most of us physicians on the panel are more interested in the access and the quality of care that veterans are getting. Let me just read you a text I got here nine minutes before this hearing started: "Phil, sorry to bother you but we're doing" -- this is a general surgeon in Johnson City, Tennessee -- "we're doing VA critically ill patients that spill over when they're full. Unfortunately, we're having trouble getting paid. Is there anything your staff can do to help us?" This goes on, I get one of these once a week. And so everything is not good right now with the VA. There are a lot of issues and problems. And I think that's the problem. And the other thing I think the VA could do tomorrow to help access and quality -- I spent four hours at the VA just two weeks ago before Thanksgiving, went down and walked through the electronic health record and looked at that and talked to one of my former -- one of my friends who is an orthopedic surgeon formerly in private practice now at the VA. I looked at how long it took him to see one patient, what he had to go through. So it's impossible to pick up with the current system you have, their productivity. So as long as that system stays in place. My friend cannot see any more patients, he just cannot do it. It took him 30 minutes to inject a rotary cuff. It would have taken him 10 in his office but it took 30 [at the VA]. And with the electronic health record and all the documentation, all the stuff he had to do to put in the record, he just can't do it. So you're going to have these waits and then, when you do that, we're going to be on you and then you're going to have people -- so that the data doesn't look bad -- manipulate those times. That's exactly what has happened and that's why we're sitting here and having this conversation. So one of the things I would recommend you do is take people like myself and make me a certified VA provider that sees patients on the outside and then pay them so I don't get these texts -- in a timely fashion like most -- like Medicare does. They're very good at it. They don't pay you very much but at least they get the money to you and you can count on that. And I think when a physician -- and I happen to know this physician very well -- he operated on my wife, he's a very fine physician and the VA won't pay him. So why would you expect him to continue to bail the VA out? And you're just going to back downstream, do exactly what we're talking about, veterans can't get in. So anyway, I've said enough about that. You could certify me as a private practitioner, as a certified VA provider and then just pay us. That's not a difficult thing to do. That would help you long waits right now if you'd just let the private sector help you out. You wouldn't have these hiring things. And Ms. Brown is absolutely right: It takes forever and many of the good people get hired away by the time the VA's made a decision to actually have them work. So the way you can fix that, you can -- if you can't fix the hiring process -- just take providers like myself, put a little thing at the bottom of my shingle that says "Dr Roe, Certified VA Provider," I'll see the patients, get the information right back over there in a timely fashion, take care of them, if the veteran wants to do that. And many veterans do, many veterans would like to have their care in the community. Those are some suggestions I would make. I don't think everything is -- is fine at Lake Wobegon, personally. Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson: It's not.US House Rep Phil Roe: You've got lots of problems and-and so to come up and accuse the Congress? We didn't create the problems, we're trying to find out what they are and resolve the problems because it is effecting veterans. I think that is our motivation. So I'll finish with that. If you have any comments, I'll be glad to hear them.Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson: Well as I -- as I said, I think we're all after the same thing, better healthcare and better outcomes for veterans. Uh, payment promptness has been a problem at VA for years. We have made great strides over the last -- probably nine to twelve months. But-but we still have a long way to go and many of the changes that we're making there is moving us towards much more that the private sector looks like. I thought we talked about this three weeks ago at the last hearing as we were talking about payment process. 60% of our payments are still processed in paper. We're encouraging out providers to do that [file claims] electronically so that we can accelerate that time line.US House Rep Phil Roe: What-what do I tell my friend after we've had this hearing today? When's he going to get paid?Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson: Please-please ask him -- if you will e-mail his information, I will -- I will see that we're working on it today.US House Rep Phil Roe: Okay, I will do that. Thank you, I yield back.

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

You're a doctor providing care to veterans and not getting paid?

Better hope to hell you have a friend on a Congressional Veterans Affairs Committee -- House or Senate.

Is that the take away?

I was there, I get that Roe was disappointed and that his time was already over and he was just trying to wrap up.

But for the Deputy Secretary's 'answer' to be: Give me his e-mail and I'll make sure he's paid?

No, that's no answer at all.

It does nothing to help other doctors or to address the problem.

To even call it a "band aid" is to be overly generous.

I do understand the frustration.

But I also understand why veterans are growing ever more frustrated with an ineffective Congress.

Wednesday's hearing made that very clear.

For the record, I missed the first half of the hearing (I was at a Senate hearing and had to walk like crazy (a half mile in heels) to catch the hearing. I do have the prepared remarks that they waste time on at the start of the hearing and Cedric attended the entire hearing and I have his notes on what happened before I arrived. (Thank you Cedric.)

The House Veterans Affairs Committee has become a joke. The Ranking Member is a joke. Those in attendance roll their eyes as she mangles both the English language and basic logic throughout the hearing while sporting one ridiculous wig after another.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: And I got to tell you I sympathize with the fact that you are managing an all funds, all accounts budget, uh, organization that controls $156 billion, that has one of the most sacred responsibilities that this country has to fulfill and you and Secretary McDonald -- and actually you before Secretary McDonald -- took this over at a time of unparalleled crisis. So I'm trying to figure out what the balance is between the Committee and the VA and the administration. I want to focus on the outcomes. I want you to hit those things that are, I know, your commitments and your issues. I don't want to get into personality issue and $156 billion organization. And yet because of the trust that was broken with this Committee, with this country, with the veterans, the VSOs who represent them, I think it's very understandable that there's a heightened sensitivity on the part of the Committee when we see a Diana Rubens situation [. . .]

Yesterday, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing
focusing on the unlawful Permanent Change of Station (PCS) pay scheme of
the current director of troubled Philadelphia Regional Office (RO). The
hearing confirmed that under secretary Allison Hickey was involved. It
also confirmed that the former Philadelphia RO director was forced out
so that Rubens could take the position that she volunteered for prior to
demanding moving incentive pay.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will not try to
recoup more than $400,000 from two senior VA executives who manipulated
the hiring system to get their jobs of choice and received hundreds of
thousands in extra money to relocate.

The agency has remained silent on questions about its decision to
demote and transfer but not fire executives Diana Rubens and Kimberly
Graves, and whether it would collect repayment of those relocation
benefits. The original statement from the VA announcing the decision
said the women had the right to appeal their reassignments.

But Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who chairs the House Veterans Affairs
Committee, said the VA’s top lawyer has determined that the agency does
not have the legal authority to recoup the money, even after
acknowledging that the women had abused their offices.

As a VSO rep (who is also a veteran) said to me as we walked out after the hearing concluded, "O'Rourke needs to shut up about what he did on some city council in Texas if he can't do the same when he's on the US Congress."

That was in reference to Beto O'Rourke's statements about how he would vote that they not just offer an easy pay off to bad employees to get rid of them but be the one voting -- usually the only one, he stated -- to spend money to ensure the problem was actually addressed.

So why not do that with Allison Hickey?

That piece of trash charmed the press from day one.

She showed up with her bleached out and tacky hair, tossing her (dry and spit end riddled) long hair throughout the hearing as though she were a show girl on a Vegas stage and that's really all it took for her to fool the press. In DC, even an ugly blond woman is 'hot.'

She lied repeatedly in one hearing after another.

We called her out.

A few members of Congress called her out.

It was predicted that every one of her promises (lies) to Congress would turn out not be true -- predicted by then-US House Rep Bob Filner -- and that she would be long gone, having pocketed a tremendous amount of money while the VA problems would remain.

That's exactly what happened.

What should have followed was Congressional investigation.

Not a hearing here or there.

And certainly not Beto O'Rourke's ridiculous crap (which offended every veteran at the hearing that I spoke to) about just "going forward."

When you don't address the problem and you don't hold people accountable, nothing gets better.

Stop pretending it does.

Allison Hickey, Diana Rubens and others provided sub-standard care to veterans while using the United States taxpayers as their personal line of credit. They should have been fired, not allowed to resign, they should have been forced to return the money and they should have been hauled before the Congress for serious Congressional oversight.

If you're not providing that, stop pretending that you care about veterans.

Clearly, you do not.

You also, and this matters as well, don't give a damn about American citizens -- veterans or not -- if you allow government employees to steal US tax payer monies.

That is exactly what Hickey and company did.

The American Legion issued the following statement:

American
Legion National Commander Dale Barnett expressed frustration Wednesday
after a congressional hearing that addressed accountability issues in
the Department of Veterans Affairs in the aftermath of relocation
compensation paid to executives implicated in a VA Inspector General’s
report last month.

“Our veterans are looking for accountability at every echelon of the
Department of Veterans Affairs,” Barnett said after today’s hearing.
“American taxpayers want to give veterans the best health care possible
for veterans. However, they expect VA to be fully accountable to
provide that care without waste, fraud or abuse of government funds. It
appears that VA has a long ways to go before achieving this mission.”

On Congressional hearings, Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Secretary Ash Carter: Turning to northern
Iraq
, Peshmerga units, with the help of U.S. air power and advisers,
have retaken the town of Sinjar, cutting the main line of communication between Raqqa and
Mosul, the two largest cities under ISIL’s control. To move people and supplies, ISIL now must
rely on backroads, where we will locate and destroy them.
Elsewhere in Iraq, we have
about 3,500 troops at six locations in support of Iraqi Security
Forces, or ISF. There, we've been providing increased lethal fire and augmenting the existing
training, advising, and assisting program. And we’re prepared to do more as Iraq shows
capability and motivation in the counter-ISIL fight and in resolving its political divisions.
After a frustratingly long time,
we are starting to see some movement in the operation to
recapture Ramadi.
Over the past several months, the coalition has provided
specialized
training
and equipment -- including combat engineering techniques like in-stride breaching and
bulldozing, and munitions like AT-4 shoulder-fired missiles to stop truck bombs -- to the Iraqi
Army
and counter-
terrorism service
units that are now beginning to enter Ramadi neighborhoods
from multiple directions.
In fact,
in the last 24 hours, the ISF retook the Anbar Operations Center on the northern
bank of the Euphrates River across from Ramadi's city center. This is an important step, but
there is still tough fighting ahead. ISIL
has
counter-
attacked several times
, but thus far the ISF
has
shown resilience.
The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi Army with additional
unique capabilities to help them finish the job, including attack helicopters and accompanying
advisors, if requested by Prime Minister Abadi.
We covered the hearing in the Wednesday, December 9th "Iraq snapshot," "Turkey's invasion and occupation of Iraq continues..." and in the Thursday, December 10th "Iraq snapshot" while Mike covered it in "So now attack helicopters" and "What is the plan?," Betty in "Joe Manchin is a sad US Senator," Wally at Rebecca's site with "Who knew Ash Carter was a fan of The Killers?," Ava at Trina's site with "Those shameful senators," Ann with "That posturing and preening Senate Armed Services Committee," Ruth with "Senator Blumenthal misses the point," Kat with "Disgusting 'answer' to the refugee crisis" and Elaine with "Senator Claire McCaskill is a pig."

RT reports, "Thousands of Iraqis across the country protested against the deployment
of Turkey’s troops to a base near the northern city of Mosul, held by
Islamic State militants. Protesters chanted anti-Turkish slogans and
burned and trampled on Turkish flags." Al Arabiya clarifies on the protesters, "Meanwhile, several thousand protesters, most of them members of Shiite
paramilitary forces, gathered in central Baghdad on Saturday to demand
the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Iraq."

Susannah George and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) report:Militiamen in fatigues, and their supporters and onlookers gathered in
Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, chanting, “No to occupation! No to Turkey!”
Some young men burned Turkish flags. Former prime minister Nouri
al-Maliki, who is Abadi’s fiercest rival, walked through the square and
was mobbed by supporters who took photos and videos with their phones.

The predominately Shi'ite protests follow the pronouncement this week by a Shi'ite cleric. Ahmed Rasheed, Isabel Coles and Hugh Lawson (REUTERS) report
that Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sisanti added his voice Friday to the
calls for Turkish troops to leave Iraq via a statement made by
spokesperson Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala'i at today's weekly sermon in
which the spokesperson declared, "The Iraqi government is responsible
for protecting Iraq's sovereignty and must not tolerate and side [with]
that [which] infringes upon it, whatever the justification and
necessities."

Paul Davis (RUDAW) offers an analysis of the conflict which opens:The Iraqi government has finally decided to become very
agitated over something other than Kurdish oil being sold on the open
market, Turkish troops in the north training Peshmerga. While content to
have a reported 30,000 Iranian forces in Iraq alongside tens of
thousands of Shia militia, whom the Iranians control, the Abadi
government is hell bent on removing 150 Turkish trainers. While unable
to remove ISIS from Iraq the Iraqi government has gone so far as to
threaten to us force against Turkey.

What is the real reason Turkey has troops in Iraq and why is
Baghdad so upset? In a word, Kurds. It is always Kurds for the Turks and
will always be for Baghdad.

It is becoming abundantly clear that there will be a free and
independent Kurdish state on the border with Turkey. It most likely will
be, at least in part, the area now controlled by the autonomous
Kurdistan Regional Government, and it will come sooner rather than
later. Depending on how events transpire it could include Rojava. The
removal of ISIS from Mosul will be required and that is beyond the
capabilities of Baghdad or, on its own, Erbil. Turkey has the capacity
but will need a reason. It is likely that non-regional forces will be
needed. Should Mosul be liberated by forces other than those under
Baghdad’s control it will be lost to Iraq.

At RT, Catherine Shakdam offers an analysis which includes:Whether for a lack of political perspective or a misplaced sense of
political grandeur, Erdogan’s Turkey is looking very much the imperial
power - a stark break from its former commitment of non-interference.And
if Turkey owes its survival and one could argue return to power, to its
prudent foreign policies - favoring cooperation and collaboration, over
smug patronage, Erdogan’s recent posing against both Russia and Iran
positioned Ankara as yet another foe to contend with.In a matter
of weeks Erdogan managed to shatter decades of careful regional
political balancing, failing in one swift move the possibility of a
grand alliance against terror - but then again, it could well be that
for all his claims and promises Erdogan wishes not to defeat ISIL, but
endeavor to play the beast to feed his neo-Ottoman dreams. Turkey today
is indulging radicals their thirst for conquest because it believes it
can exploit radicals’ ambitions to serve its own agenda.And
though such allegations might have appeared far-fetched only a few
months ago, recent developments opened up truths we cannot afford to
deny.

Lastly, today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq

Rocket artillery, bomber, fighter
and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 12 strikes in Iraq, coordinated
with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Al Baghdadi, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and wounded an ISIL fighter.

-- Near Makhmur, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Sinjar, three strikes
struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle,
an ISIL light machine gun, an ISIL fighting position, and an ISIL supply
cache.

Task force officials define a
strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same
geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect.
Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single
weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple
aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and
weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect
of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use.
Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of
aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each
strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a
target.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.